Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

Jays sign Overbay

Toronto has signed first baseman Lyle Overbay to a four-year deal worth $24 million. Overbay would’ve been eligible to become a free agent after the 2008 season and he likely would’ve garnered a 4-5 year deal on the open market. So securing the 2009-10 seasons in the contract was big for Toronto.

Overbay will make $4.2 million in 2007, including $3.8 million paid as a signing bonus. He is then scheduled to make $5.8 million in 2008 and $7 million in 2009 and 2010. The signing is also good because Overbay might’ve garnered more in 2008 through arbitration.

The contract for John Thomson has a base salary of $500,000, but it will jump to $1.5 million should he make the Major League roster out of Spring Training. Also, Thomson can make as much as $3.75 million — not the previously reported $4 million — if he can make 34 starts this year. If he makes 30 starts, Thomson would make $2 million and he’d make $2.5 million if he logs 32 starts.

As I pointed out in the lineup thread a whlie back, not only did Overbay have a better average than Catalanotto (both total and against each of RHP and LHP), he had a better slugging percentage and almost identical OBP. Since people liked Cat in the early part of the lineup, I see no reason why Overbay wouldn’t fit there as well. (Much like Olerud did.) I guess the only issue I can think of is that he blocks the Jays’ homegrown prospects, but we have until 2010 to trade those for pitching.

Where does this deal place some of the Jays’ significant minor league hitting prospects, like Chip Cannon? By the time Overvay’s contract expires, most of these fellows will be far too old to break in to the majors. Do you think that the Jays will seek to move these one-tool type of players rather than simply loose them?

Just heard about Fox reporting that the Jays could be interested in David Wells again. So, what would Bluejay nation think of that signing if it happened ? Though he is an eater, is he an inning eater ?

Chip Cannon isn’t really a top prospect in our organization. He isn’t the kind of player whom we should prepare for, and in doing so, let Overbay away.

Chip Cannon can do wonders for the Jays marketing department as well as for the papers, but Cannon simply strike outs too much and produces a low average to be considered a candidate for 1st base.

A comparable player to Chip Cannon in terms of minor league stats would be Russell Branyan. He hit 30 HR with 187 whiffs and a .208 average in AAA Buffalo. The best performance he had in the majors was 2002 Cle/Cin season where he produced 24 HR with 151 SO and .228 average.

I’d expect Cannon to be an adequate power-hitting bench player in the NL.

Another good signing for the Jays! Sometimes, a successful offseason can be detirmined by locking up your own stars intead of throwing major dollars at barely average pitching.In my opinion, there was no one out there to pitch for the Jays that was worth $10 million/year.Boomer Wells would be worth taking a flyer on.However, I think he will stay close to home in San Diego.The price for guys like Mark Redman,Ramon Ortiz,Tony Armas may come down before spring training,but I would only pick one of them up for insurance.If I were the Gm, my pitching staff to start the season would be:Halladay
Burnett

Chacin

Thomson

Marcum or Jansenn

Set up men :Brandon League

Josh Towers

Of Course BJ to close it out.

The rest fo the pen would be up for grabs,hopefully one or two of our minor league arms come up and get some valuable experience.

Don’t get me wrong i think Thomson is a super signing. Though, that doesn’t mean we can’t still think about signing other people. How much do you think Redman would cost in this late stage of the game. He’s a healthy guy, eats innings, and could be accused of being a #4 pitcher. We could prob get him for super cheap. Like 3 mill? Sound plausable ? I think if everyone stays healthy we have a preety decent rotaton. But, Chacin, Burnett,and Thomson are the walking injured, so i don’t know how likely that could be.

Does anybody know how many draft picks the Jays have accrued through the first 3 rounds of this year’s draft? It seems to me, if there are enough low picks, this could be a great opportunity to re-build the farm system with some top prospects. (Assuming, of course, the Jays are willing to pay for the best players available at the time.)

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